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I don't think it matters that the actor or actress is disabled - surely, like research, if non-disabled people can portray and use their own experiences to get the audience to engage with them and their empathy, that is fine. That is, after all, what acting has always been about. I'm not quite sure that seeing real pain or dramatic pain means anything more profound...after all we see scenes of real pain with famines and war on tv but do we respond differently ? I think not - listening to many people they just switch off because they can't watch real people suffering or making them have to deal with uncomfortable feelings they do not have to deal with, or they distance themselves from what they are seeing psychologically through the medium of the screen - which misses the point of portraying the 'real' in the first place. Glenn. -----Original Message----- From: Laurence Bathurst [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: 03 September 2001 18:47 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Moulin Rouge - without Crips? Hi list Same argument about straight actors playing gay or lesbian roles. There seems to be a fine line between representation and parody and between 'staged' sympathy and actual sympathy. I wonder if anyone has any comments about the Iranian film the name of which eludes me but has something to do with drunk horses. I haven't seen it yet but it is semi-documentary in that the characters are not played by actors. There is a boy with a disability who plays a boy with a disability which apparently, from what I hear, shows some of the very real pain that the boy experiences. That is, the things you see are actual - not contrived. What sort of impact does this have on its audience? At 06:54 AM 4/09/2001 +1000, you wrote: >And now it seems, Toulouse Lautrec is back in the news in Moulin Rouge - >the musical. This time the stunted genius is played by the non-disabled >though slightly built John Leguizamo, who accentuates our herošs lisp >possibly to underline his disabled status. In the original 50s version TL's >role was taken by Jose Farrer who stumped around painfully on his knees, >his feet tied to the back of his thighs. Therešs not so much obvious >disability in the remake though, and the playing of a disabled artist by an >able-bodied actor is bound reopen the debate about whether disabled actors >should be employed to play disabled parts. What do list members think? > > > >Best wishes, > > >Michael Morgan >2 Glenhill Park >Glen Rd. >Belfast >BT11 8GB >Tel: 028 9030 2944 >Fax: 028 9030 2973 >Email: [log in to unmask] > >________________End of message______________________ > >Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List >are now located at: > >www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html > >You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page. ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page. ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.